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Paul Ryan: ‘I Can’t Believe We Lost To These Guys’

US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (L), his wife Ann (2nd L), running mate Paul Ryan (R) and his wife Janna wave after Romney conceded defeat to President Barack Obama on November 7, 2012 in Boston. Obama swept to re-election, forging history again by transcending a slow economic recovery and the high unemployment which haunted his first term to beat Republican Mitt Romney. AFP PHOTO/Don EMMERT (Photo credit should read DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (CBS DC/AP) — Former Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan still can’t believe that he and Mitt Romney are not in the White House.

Speaking to Fox News Tuesday, Ryan said Romney was right that Russia was America’s greatest “geopolitical adversary” and that President Barack Obama’s policies toward Russia have been a failure.

“There are moments when I just look down, shake my head and say, ‘I can’t believe we lost to these guys,’” Ryan said, referring to Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. “This is one of those moments. Mitt was right.”

Romney was criticized last year before the election by Obama and Democrats for his comment about Russia. Republicans now are now having a “told-you-so” moment with Obama, with not only Ryan, but also Sen. John McCain, saying that Romney was right.

“I think the president was incredibly naïve on his Russia policy,” Ryan told Fox News. “His reset has been a total failure. I think this is what happens when a superpower projects weakness in its form in defense policy. Aggression fills that vacuum. And I think that’s what is happening right now.”

Ryan said Obama is not leading like he should during the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

“I believe he’s taken on the whole notion of exceptionalism. I believe we are an exceptional country for lots of reasons. And I’m not sure that he’s going to be leading like he ought to be in this situation,” Ryan explained to Fox News. “Russia’s violated the sovereignty of Ukraine. I think there are a lot of things we need to be doing to address this, LNG export, other kinds of sanctions, but I think the lack of a coherent foreign policy, the fact that the president is proposing a budget to highlight our defenses projects weakness.”

The White House announced Tuesday a $1 billion aid package for Ukraine as Secretary of State John Kerry visited Kiev.

“It is clear that Russia has been working hard to create a pretext for being able to invade further,” Kerry said. “It is not appropriate to invade a country, and at the end of a barrel of a gun dictate what you are trying to achieve. That is not 21st-century, G-8, major nation behavior.”

Obama said at a fundraiser Tuesday night that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could “de-escalate in the next several days and weeks.”

The Obama administration is warning Russia there will be economic and diplomatic sanctions levied at Russia if the crisis continues.

The penalties against Russia are “not something we are seeking to do, it is something Russia is pushing us to do,” Kerry stated.

CBS News reports that Kerry is meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Paris Wednesday in hopes to find a solution.